LOS ANGELES — Southern Cal fired football coach Clay Helton two games into his seventh season in charge.

Athletic director Mike Bohn made the move Monday, two days after an embarrassing 42-28 home loss to Stanford.

Donte Williams, the Trojans’ cornerbacks coach and associate head coach, is taking over as head coach. Williams, a Los Angeles-area native and the first Black head coach in USC football history, joined the program in 2020 and has played a major role in USC’s significant recruiting advancements over the past two cycles.

Helton went 46-24 during his improbable tenure in charge of the longtime West Coast college football powerhouse. Helton twice took over as USC’s interim head coach before getting the job on a permanent basis late in the 2015 season.

Helton’s Trojans won one Pac-12 title and one Rose Bowl but otherwise struggled to live up to the sky-high expectations at USC. He was 19-14 since the 2017 season.

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